1 Peter 2
Having shown us in the first chapter that the Christian is redeemed, renewed, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to walk in newness of life, Peter now passes on to unfold our new relationships, and shows that Christians are not only builded together as a spiritual house, but are a holy and a royal priesthood — holy, looking God-ward; royal, looking manward, and that this all flows from coming to Christ.
(Verses 4-5) “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” Peter is very fond of this word living. You will remember his confession of Jesus in Matthew 16, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” You have come to a living stone, he says here; and this is God’s estimate of Him, “Chosen of God, and precious.”
It is “to Whom coming,” that is, you are brought to have to do with a Person. Do you know what this is? Have you had to do in the history of your soul with the Son of God as a living Person? If you have, what is the result? “Ye also as living stones are built up.”
What is a Christian? You say a “living stone.” And what is a stone? A stone is a bit of a rock. See what security it gives! Where first do we get the illustration? In Peter’s own case. Peter is brought to Jesus, and what does Jesus say? “Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone” (John 1:4242And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone. (John 1:42)).
This act of the Lord’s is most significant. He takes the place of being Simon’s Lord and his possessor. Changing the name always indicated that the person whose name was changed, became the possession, or vassal, of the one who changed his name. How does this change of name take place? The Lord speaks to Peter. How do we become living stones? Because we have heard the voice of the Son of God. “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live” (John 5:2525Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. (John 5:25)).
A Christian is a living stone, having come to Christ. What a sense of security it gives the soul! You have had to do with the Living One! He is a living stone, and you are a living stone; you have rock-life, the same as His. Can you ever be separated from Him? Never! His life is now yours, and “your life is hid with Christ in God.”
The spiritual house, of which Peter here speaks, is the nearest approach to Paul’s doctrine of the “body.” What Paul calls the “body,” Peter calls the “house,” but that is not at all what Paul means by the house; he is talking of a great mass of profession, when using that expression. If you want to see the spiritual house in perfection, you must look at Revelation 21. How beautifully the stones shine there! They are exactly the same stones as are being built up here, but by the time we get there we have been on the great Lapidary’s wheel to the uttermost; and every bit of dirt, and every ugly excrescence has been taken off, and the wheel has rendered the stone translucent. But the stones that shine so brightly there, ought to shine for Christ here! What a beautiful thing it would be if the world could read Christ in you and me here! By-and-bye the nations will walk in the light of that city; they will see Christ coming out then in glory, and they ought to see His grace and love now reflected in our life and ways day by day.
But believers, besides being God’s spiritual house, are “an holy priesthood.” The idea that man has of a priest is one who comes between the soul and God, and does the business of the soul with God. That was all true in Old Testament times, but who are the priests now? Every saved soul is a priest. “Am I then exercising my priesthood?” is a question of profound importance for each believer to ask himself. We are not all ministers, for God has not given us all power to minister the Word of the Lord, but we are all priests.
Ministry is the exercise of a spiritual gift, and the divinely appointed means of conveying truth from God to the souls of men; therefore every person ought to have the deepest possible sense in his soul, if he rise to minister, “I have something from God for the people before me.” But while public ministry is limited according to gift, priesthood belongs to the youngest, the feeblest, the weakest believer, and it belongs to women as well as to men.
Worship is the result of the exercise of the holy priesthood; ministry is the exercise of the gift the Lord has given to His servants. Worship is from the soul to God. Ministry is from God to the soul. The holy priests are to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Hebrews 13:1515By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (Hebrews 13:15), says, “By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” There should be continually rising from the hearts of the saints, blessing, and praise and worship.
The Lord has put us together first of all, to praise, and thank, and bless God. We must have God first: His due must be rendered to Him. We must not even put preaching the gospel first. This is where many have gone wrong. They have put the world first, and made the salvation of souls the first object. Now this is not what God looks for to be our first object. It is all right, in its place, and we cannot be too earnest in our endeavor to get souls saved, but God’s claims on us, as His saints, and His holy priests, we must first respond to. Then go out after souls with all the energy possible.
What is God’s great work now, from the day of Pentecost onward? What has He been seeking? The Father seeks worshippers, and because the Father seeks worshippers, the Son says, I must go and seek sinners, and when I have found them, turn them into worshippers. When once we are worshippers, and holy priests, it is easy to fulfill our functions as royal priests. Are you a royal priest? Looking to God we are holy priests, and passing through the world we are to be royal priests. And what does royalty give? It gives the sense of dignity. And what more dignified than to be God’s ambassadors in a world that opposes His grace!
How wonderful it is to read, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (vs. 9). I feel we are very apt to lose the sense of our individual responsibility as royal priests. It is our privilege and solemn responsibility to “show forth the virtues of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.” But first we must exercise our holy priesthood. If we are built up a spiritual house, and given the privilege of being holy priests, are we exercising this privilege? Are our souls answering to the mind of God? The thing is very simple. Peter says these spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God. It is that which the Lord looks for, delights in, and wants. It is what His blessed Son came into the world for.
What a picture the priesthood in the Old Testament gives us of our position now. What does God put into our hands now? It is Christ! He puts Christ into our hands to offer up. He does not look for us to be occupied with ourselves, either with our own position, or our own blessing, but to be occupied with all that Christ is, as the One that God finds precious, and whom our hearts find precious too.
“ Unto you, therefore, which believe He is precious,” that is, what God sees precious, you see precious. Faith sees exactly what God sees.
It would be an immense help if, in our meetings for worship, this thought filled us, that we are there as priests to offer to God what He delights in, and that is Christ. I press this thought, that our condition individually largely affects God’s assemblies. Supposing that a large proportion of the holy priests are flat and listless, and with little enjoyment of Christ, you must have the whole assembly affected by that. Oh! if our souls were bright with a deep sense of the love and favor of God, what meetings for worship ours would be! It would be all Christ, and Christ alone. The Lord lead us into the enjoyment of what it is to be holy priests, as those whose hearts are satisfied with Christ, and thus bring Him to God continually, Whom we find precious, and Whom God finds precious!
But if we are holy priests, we are also to be royal priests. What is the royal priesthood? Clearly of the same nature as the Melchizedek priesthood of Christ. The Lord is now exercising His priesthood after the Aaronic type. He is thinking of His poor weak people down here. The exercise of His priesthood is Aaronic, its order that of Melchizedek. Now He is meeting weakness and infirmities; when He comes out as the Melchizedek Priest by-and-bye, it will not be meeting weakness; all is pure blessing consequent on victory. But now, before Christ exhibits the Melchizedek priesthood, He says to His people, You must exhibit it. He is going to be a blessing to everybody by-and-bye, and He says, That is what you may be now, in every possible way in which Christian love and grace can carry you out in devotedness to meet every need, whether of body or soul. You may only be able to carry a piece of bread to a hungry person, or to visit a sick one, or to comfort a mourning heart, or to speak a word to a troubled conscience; but all flows from the fact of your being a royal priest, and in the proper exercise of your priesthood.
We have seen in Hebrews 13:1515By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (Hebrews 13:15) our holy priesthood — offering the sacrifice of praise to God continually, and in verse 16 our royal priesthood comes out “But to do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” The sacrifice of praise is the first thing, and the sacrifice of active benevolence is the next, that is, reproducing the character of God. The world is to look at you and me, and to see in us the character of the One whom it cannot see — who is now hidden — by the coming out in us of what He is, in all our words and ways. Christ says, as it were, I depute you to exercise the Melchizedek priesthood, before the day when I come out to exercise it Myself.
What is the Melchizedek priesthood? A priesthood of unmixed blessing. What is a Christian? A person who is blessed, and who becomes a blesser. If you, my reader, are a Christian, what are you left in this world for? Christ has left you in this world to be a person whose heart is always to go out to God in praise and thankfulness, in the midst of a thankless world, and to go out to men in acts of benevolence and unselfishness, in the midst of a selfish world. To God thankfulness and praise; to men benevolence and unselfishness, that is to be our life. The Lord grant that His grace may so work in our hearts as to produce these spiritual fruits.
(Verses 7-8) “Unto you therefore which believe He is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.” This gives us Israel’s path, as a nation. Why do they stumble at the Word? Because they will not obey God. “Whereunto also they were appointed.” Appointed to what? Appointed as a nation to have this stone put before them. God gave them the most wonderful privilege possible, to have Christ put before them, and they stumbled over Him. Because He came in lowly grace the nation stumbled over Him.
“But ye are a chosen generation.” Peter is addressing himself there particularly to the believing remnant of Israel, the Jewish believers, whom God had turned to Himself. The nation stumbled over Christ, he says, but you poor feeble believers in Him have all the blessings that God had promised the nation.
As a nation, God had said of them in Exodus 19 that if they were obedient they should be a peculiar treasure to Him, a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. They were disobedient, and lost all, and now Peter says, you, a feeble remnant, have gob this blessing, in spite of the disobedience of the nation, through the grace of God, and the obedience of Christ.
“ Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy” (vs. 10). This is a word from Hosea 2. Because of their wickedness and sin, God had said that Israel should not get mercy, and were not His people (Hos. 1:66And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away. (Hosea 1:6)). The nation has lost the blessing through their disobedience. In the 2nd chapter, the Lord promises to give it back. In spite of their sin, and disobedience, and unfaithfulness, and My judgment too, I will bring them into blessing by-and-bye, God says, and in the very spot where they were judged, there they will be blessed (Hos. 2:2323And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God. (Hosea 2:23)). Judgment has gone by, and mercy rejoices against judgment, for even disobedience cannot frustrate the purposes of God in grace.
God will fulfill His promises to Israel, and bless them through His own grace, and they will go to the valley of Achor (Josh. 7:2626And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day. (Joshua 7:26); Hos. 2:1515And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. (Hosea 2:15)), the place where the first judgment came on Israel in the land, for profaning themselves with the forbidden thing, and there where they had been judged, they will get the blessing through mercy. But now, Peter says, you, the believing remnant, get this position before the time comes when God will restore the nation.
Having pointed out the peculiar place of blessing which the believers among the Jews occupied, the apostle begins his exhortations. It is very noticeable in every part of the Word of God, that exhortations are always based upon the unfolding of the doctrine of the soul’s relationship with God most distinctly and clearly, and this chapter is no exception to the general rule.
You will see at a glance how simply and naturally the exhortations come in here. Peter has been calling these people to heaven. He has been unfolding the heavenly calling, in the first chapter; has shown them that they are chosen by the Father, separated by the work of the Spirit, and sheltered by the blood of the Son of God; that an inheritance in heaven is kept for them, and they are kept for it; that in the meantime they go through trouble down here, but rejoice in Him, whom having not seen they love. Then he has shown them, that they are children of the Father, but redeemed by the blood of the Son, and renewed by the Spirit, and the Word of God.
In the second chapter he has been setting forth their new position, as being a spiritual house in which God dwells, and moreover that they are both holy and royal priests — holy priests in offering up spiritual sacrifices to God, and royal priests in showing forth the “virtues of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light:” then that they are His people, and have obtained mercy, and mercy is a very sweet thing. Mercy we need all through our walk on earth.
This, then, is the place in which the believer stands; this is Peter’s view of Christianity, that the believer is left down here to yield to God what He ought to get from man, and to show to man what God is, in the grace and love of His heart towards man. After this are we not prepared for any exhortation?
(Verse 11) “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” He addresses the Christian as a stranger and a pilgrim. Why are you a stranger? Because you are away from home. Why are you a pilgrim? Because you are journeying to a spot which you want to reach. You are a stranger because your hopes, your joys, and the One you love best are all in heaven, and that is what makes heaven the home of your heart.
Born from heaven, you belong to heaven. Your Father is in heaven, your Saviour is in heaven, your springs of supply are in heaven; your hopes, your joys, are all in heaven; in short, you are like an exotic plant down here, a stranger to this clime. You are a pilgrim, too, and a pilgrim never thinks his pilgrimage over till he reaches the spot towards which his course is bent.
“Abstain from fleshly lusts,” says the apostle. Peter is talking of the inner life of the soul, of those thousand and one little things that come in to spoil communion with God, and to hinder growth, and the knowledge of Christ.
You know what is a snare to you, what will trip you up, and, he says, you must be prepared to deny yourselves the things that are a hindrance, or, in other words, “which war against the soul.” You must use, in fact, the knife of circumcision. After Israel crossed the Jordan, to take possession of the promised land, there had to be sharp knives used before they could use sharp swords: and why? Because the sharp knives were for themselves, and they must be right themselves, before they can war against the enemy. If you are going to have outward power, you must have inward purity. If you are going to have happiness, you must have holiness. Happiness always walks a little behind holiness, and the man that is not holy cannot be happy. By holiness I mean practical judging of oneself and one’s ways; practically setting oneself to work to keep the flesh in the place of death, where God has put it by the cross of Christ. There must be holiness within, or there will be no happiness without. He that would be happy must be holy.
(Verses 12-15) “Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.” Now the apostle turns outside. If you have your heart practically purified by the Lord, you will find yourself all right outside. But mark, you must make up your mind at once for the opposing Gentiles to speak against you. Who are the Gentiles? Unbelievers. If you are going to follow the Lord closely, you will find that, not only unbelievers, but sometimes even worldly Christians will have a good deal to say against you. What will be the result? They will have, by-and-bye, to confess before God that your works were worthy of the Lord; and though they spoke evil of you, they knew that God was working in you, and by you.
It is a great thing for a young Christian to stand boldly for the Lord. What must you expect? That your old worldly friends will have a great deal to say about you, and it will all be evil, of course. We must expect it, and if we are expecting it, we are not surprised when it comes.
“Having your conversation honest”; that is, our walk so up to the mark that no one can put a finger on anything and say, That is not right, or, That is not fair, or, The other thing is not lovely. There ought not to be even a suspicion of evil, much less a proof.
The 11Th verse is the subjugating of the inward life, the 12Th verse is the right ordering of the outward life, and in verse 13, we are told to submit to the powers that be for the Lord’s sake. If the governing powers of the land were to institute an impost over so unrighteous, the Christian’s duty is to submit. Could there have been a more wicked king than Nero? Yet in Nero’s time, Paul wrote to the Roman Christians to be subject to the higher powers, because they are ordained of God.
The Lord Jesus Himself came into the world to have no rights, to be scorned and buffeted, and finally to be turned out of the world which His own hands had made, and a Christian is to follow Christ, and to have no rights either. Whatever the thing is, unless it infringe on the revealed will of God, you are to submit for the Lord’s sake; that is, you are to act as royal priests, showing forth the virtues that are in Him. If Christians are moved to strife, or are siding with the world, there is no testimony as to patience, and forbearance, and the like.
(Verse 16) “As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.” Here the Christian gets the place of being thoroughly free, not belonging to the world, but belonging to heaven, and not using his liberty as a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servant of God, seeking only to be a servant. Now a servant’s business is simply to follow the will of his master, and God’s will is that I should submit. If I take things into my own hands, the Lord says, as it were, “You have taken up the cudgels, and I leave you to fight it out,” and the consequence is, when this is the case, we are always beaten.
(Verse 17) “Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.” Now Peter begins to take up the relationships of life. I am to give honor to whom honor is due. Be it a title or whatever it is, I am to give it. It is often a little pride in the heart that does not like to yield this honor — but, believe me, there is nothing more contrary to God, nothing more deadening, nothing more thoroughly of the devil than radicalism, or what is called “leveling,” and the end of the whole thing is Antichrist, upsetting all authority and power, only that it may shift hands.
Among Christians there is but one standing-place before God; all are saints, and are one in Christ Jesus. God raised up His Son Jesus Christ, and with Him He has put in His own presence every believer. What wonderful exaltation! In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither bond nor free. This is the doctrine of Christ — the doctrine of the Church. How then ought I to act? Like Christ! I ought to speak like Christ, to act like Him. But then there is “the doctrine of God,” and what is that? If I am a servant I am to act as one; if I do not so act, I put everything out of its due order.
The doctrine of Christ is that there is not a shade of difference between saint and saint, but the doctrine of God is, that God says there are those to whom I am to give honor, and I am not walking with God if I am not ready to do this, not grudgingly, but with all heartiness. There is something very beautiful in these four things going together in the 17th verse. Peter talks of the world, of the brotherhood, of God, and of the king.
It is vain for us to say we are fearing God if we are not giving to all men that which God would have us give. There is no real fear of God unless I am seeking to maintain, in His presence, every relationship in which I am placed down here, exactly as He would have me maintain it, according to His own mind and heart
(Verse 18) “Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.” Peter is speaking here not to slaves, but to domestic servants, and what is the word? “Be subject with all fear.” They may be very hard masters, be very ill-tempered persons, that is not to excuse the Christian servant from subjection. Let us acknowledge our weakness, but never seek to extenuate it; let us acknowledge our feebleness, but never let us justify it!
What is the fear spoken of here? Fear lest, in my position as a servant, I should misrepresent God; that is the fear. My master or mistress might be unconverted, and I have to represent God to them.
(Verses 19-22) “For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” If you do right, and get hard words for it, and take it patiently, you put God in debt, as it were. He says, “Thanks” to you. How beautiful! If you do good, suffer for it, take it patiently, and get no thanks from your master, never mind, you are going to get a surprise by-and-bye; there is a “Thank you” to come from God to you, for this beautiful exhibition of patience under most trying circumstances. The motive for you to act like this is most blessed; it is because Christ did the same when He suffered for us.
Peter speaks of suffering for conscience’ sake, for righteousness sake, for Christ’s sake, and for evil doing. I may possibly suffer for my own sin, but I ought never to, and why? Because Christ has suffered for sins. I may suffer for conscience’ sake, because there may come a question of doing something which a master orders, but which is contrary to God, and then of course God must be obeyed rather than man. Obedience to God is the first thing — the great ruling principle of the Christian’s life. If in obeying a master I must disobey God, I am shut up to what Peter says in the 4th of Acts, “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.” It never can be right to disobey God, in order to obey man, and the saint is never supposed to do such a thing.
In such a case I may suffer for conscience’ sake, but the soul gets the recompense made to it of the Lord’s favor and blessing, and of His enjoyed presence, as its blessed reward. Peter gives Christ as a beautiful example of this, “Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously” (vs. 23).
Christ put His case wholly into God’s hands, and you must do the same, Peter says. Christ said, I take everything entirely from God’s hands, and accept it as coming from Him; and when we do the same, the sting of the trial is gone, and it is only fraught with blessing for the soul.
This allusion to the Lord’s perfect pathway leads the apostle here to allude most touchingly to the reality and depth of Christ’s sufferings, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls” (vss. 24-25). Your sins, my sins, led Him to the tree, and now we are dead to sins, but alive to God.
Jesus always did right; we went wrong, went astray, but we are brought back to have to do with this blessed One, who is the Overseer, the One that takes care of the soul, the Shepherd who goes after the sheep.
The Lord give us to delight our hearts more and more in Him, to follow Him, to learn of Him, to have His Word more as the daily joy of our souls, and to bring forth fruit in our lives.